Our national politics has fully descended into the gutter at a very perilous time. The Republicans have ostensibly nominated a narcissistic buffoon. The Democratic Party establishment continues its attempts to force the only popular candidate with genuine ideas out of the race by anointing the candidate of empire. Essentially, the rich and powerful are fighting … More Is a Left-Right Coalition Against Trump Viable?
Renewable energy production will not reduce carbon emissions from over-production and excessive consumerism. A new Great Transformation is needed to limit global warming to livable levels by reconfiguring the economy to harmonize with ecological systems. … More Energy Waste Almost Everywhere
plutocracy [ploo-tok-ruh-see] noun, plural plutocracies. the rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy. a government or state in which the wealthy class rules. a class or group ruling, or exercising power or influence, by virtue of its wealth. kleptocracy [klep-tok-ruh-see] noun, plural kleptocracies. a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; … More Panama Papers: Plutocracy, Kleptocracy, or Both?
Chances for the survival of the species Homo sapiens beyond the next few decades are diminishing rapidly. Reducing the accelerating risk of extinction will require massive intervention to change our present trajectory of the global economy and change it fast. Each week, new data are reported on rapidly accelerating impacts of global warming. Multiple positive … More Calculating Survival: How to Avoid Human Species Extinction
Avoiding societal collapse means building bridges between science and the rest of the world. [Please note: This article is republished with permission from the site, ensia.com. It was accessed at: http://ensia.com/voices/to-build-a-sustainable-world-academics-need-to-tear-down-the-ivory-tower.] Anthony D. Barnosky @tonybarnosky Professor of integrative biology, University of California, Berkeley Elizabeth A. Hadly @LizHadly Stanford professor and global change scientist Paul R. Ehrlich President, Center for … More To build a sustainable world, academics need to tear down the Ivory Tower
The report of the latest “Bloomberg New Energy Finance” (BNEF) annual summit in New York proclaimed on April 14, 2015 that fossil fuels had already lost the race against renewables. “The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil … More Renewables Transition: It’s Happening, But How, and is it Enough?
Climate action: can we do it ourselves? If we recycle everything we can, take shorter showers, and install some solar panels, will that prevent the looming climate chaos? We could buy an electric car and low-emissions consumer products, maybe even go “off the grid.” But would that be enough to avoid climate catastrophe? Sorry. Absolutely … More Individual Climate Ethics and Social Action
We are so used to the idea that we must each have the freedom to choose, well, just about everything in our lives. We imagine that we are independently constructing a “life of our own.” We have, in our minds at least, an inalienable right to choose and to live our own unique “lifestyle.” That … More Climate Imperative, Freedom, and Democracy
Bloomberg News reported on February 3, 2016, that a new report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts wonders whether currently very high corporate profit margins can be sustained. They are at near record levels, despite a stagnant real economy characterized by record low wages and listless job growth and declining opportunity structures. Well, according to … More Questioning Capitalism: Goldman Sachs on Corporate Profit Margins
I’ve been reading a very interesting book lately. It is all about scientific ideas or theories that the authors of its many small chapters believe are impeding scientific progress in a wide variety of specialties. The book is called, This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress (New York: Harper Perennial, 2015). Edited … More Malthus, Mistakes, and Missing the Obvious
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 